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Broadband & TV Providers - Request for Advice

edited June 2016 in Not Sports Related
At the moment we have a package with Sky that includes tv, broadband and phone but are looking to change to save money. We don't need a landline anymore as everyone in the house has a mobile. We don't watch a lot of telly and feel that paying for Sky doesn't give us good value. I therefore have questions about two services:

1. Broadband: Can anyone recommend a decent broadband provider that doesn't insist on providing other services like phone or tv? There are up to four of us using internet at any one time, my youngest in particular wants high speeds for gaming. We're quite happy with Sky broadband and will talk to them, but from memory they're only interested in selling bundles. We don't want to go with TalkTalk as we had a previous bad experience and still hold a grudge. There is no Virgin service in our part of Essex.

2. Telly: We're looking to go with Freesat. Anyone got experience of this, is it any good?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Stig
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Comments

  • Sorry can't help, would have strongly recommended Virgn but see you cannot access their service.
  • When I last looked it was only Virgin that you didn't need a phone line for.
  • Have you phoned Sky and said you want to leave yet? Almost guaranteed they'll knock money off your bill. If you're unlucky with who you get to speak to just make an excuse and call back later.
  • I have Virgin broadband with no other service . By far the quickest if you can get their fibre optic .
  • edited June 2016
    I have a 5-year old Panasonic telly with a built-in HD freesat tuner (and a freeview one).
    It's been excellent until recently when for technical reasons the ITV1 HD channel (only) has started to pixelate. ITV blame Panasonic and vice versa. Fortunately I have a TalkTalk box I can switch over to. I understand that it's not a problem with more recent products which rather indicates it is a Panasonic issue.
    It's hard to check whether TVs have a tuner built-in or not. I understand some Samsung models have one but don't list it in the spec!
    The basic channel selection is fine. If you need to get a box the Humax ones seem to have the best reputation.
    Note that you will lose some HD channels, like ITV2, 3 and 4. $ky subsidise ITV's out put on these to make their HD package sound more attractive. Channel 5 has recently left the $ky paywall and is available on Freesat.

    More info of channels, etc here joinfreesat.co.uk
  • Plustnet are pretty decent, award winning speeds/customer service. They also provide the customer service to John Lewis and are one of the cheapest as well. You want to look at the fibre deals as it is worth the extra fiver it terms of the number of users in your house and the bandwidth that requires. Ultimately it all comes down the same line unless you go with Virgin, so all ISP's will provide the same speed apart from talk talk who have their own network in some parts of the country.

    Stability of the connection is generally more important than speeds for gaming as gaming is actually low data (most of the computing is done on the console/pc). Fibre solves both problems, but there can still be problems if you have issues with your copper phone line between the cabinet and your house. It also goes wrong a lot less as it is a modern technology design for purpose rather than reversed engineer around an existing infrastructure. Equally most people will need it in 5-10 years as everything moves to digital distribution. Saying all that BT Openreach are being pretty slack about rolling it out nationwide.
  • I have had my BB and home telephone line with Plusnet for the last three years and I am very happy. Cheap, fast and unlimited downloads.

    I have a Humax Freeview box for my TV needs, One off payment of approx £200 to buy it and that's it.
  • Re freesat not a lot of people know this but your sky box will be able to pick up all the free sat channels when your sub ends. If you want to see what channels you'll get, just take your sky card out the box.

    Re broadband, I think only virgin have no line rental. As others have said, call sky and tell them you want to leave and they will do you a deal.
  • What I've been doing is shopping around for the special deals; i.e I've got Sky Broadband free for 12 months, just paying Line Rental. So, £15 or so a month?

    For the TV, I got a Roku box in the living room (One off £70) and an Apple TV (One off £6)) in the Bedroom with. With Netflix (£7 p/m) and Sky's Now TV (£7p/m) I've got access to just about anything I could ever want, for under £30 a month and working on up to 3 devices.

    If there's a special day of football on TV you can even get a day pass via Now TV for Sky Sports.
  • I used to work for Plusnet for just over 5 years so naturally I'm with them as I know they can be trusted. Glad to hear others praising them too.
    I'm not on their fibre product so can't say what that's like however as it's using Openreach, it'll be similar to BT Retail. The other good thing about Plusnet is that they are very open and honest with their traffic management system and so you'll be able to see when and how throughput speeds are prioritised depending on what you use. AFAIK gaming is given a high priority but loads of info about speeds etc available at http://support.plus.net

    Not trying to sell it to you as I have nothing to gain! I've also just got their basic calls package (weekends I believe) as I don't use my landline either (and if you use the BT infrastructure you'll need a landline connection regardless so this is unavoidable).

    In terms of TV, it may not help but I've just got Freeview through my TV. No box or anything. Works for me.
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  • Plusnet is nothing more than a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT. It was acquired by BT in 2006.

    The John Lewis thing is indicated to be a "joint enterprise". I suspect - I could be wrong - that Plusnet, that is BT in reality, are merely paying John Lewis a fee to use their name and run all the actual business operations.

    Not saying any of this is bad necessarily, just that you might not get who you think. In the same way that Virgin Media is nothing to do with Richard Branson; it's wholly owned by Liberty Capital which just pays Branson a fee for use of the Virgin brand.
  • Plusnet is owned by BT, but it is a separate company and run as such. BT customer support is mostly based in India, while Plusnet is based in Sheffield and Leeds.
    It also often comes top in Which ratings and industry surveys for customer satisfaction while BT comes bottom. It has been one of the most successful parts of the business and has been given autonomy.
    Having also been an ex-employee, we were told that John-Lewis outsourced to Plunet due to how highly rated the customer support was. Could of been BS though.
    There was a definite correlation to Mac ownership to John Lewis accounts.
  • Thanks very much for all the advice everyone, much appreciated. It looks like either a Sky-repackage or Plusnet. I'm pleased to hear that Freesat seems to be well received and will bear in mind the thumbs up for Humax, if we buy one. I am most taken with the suggestion from @Blinkant about free channels from my existing box though - will definitely try this. Does anyone know what will happen to the stuff I've got saved on the hard drive when I stop subscriptions - will that get wiped, stay put or will it depend on what channels we've recorded?
  • Just cancelled my sky contract, £71.00 a month with sky sports. Was offered £55 per month as opening offer, declined that.
    Bloke from sky calls up about a week later, willing to go even cheaper, declined that politely as well, told him I am getting
    a digi recording box, £250 one off fee.

    He did say he could understand that as no monthly outgoings, been with them for 20years plus, time will tell if it is the right decision.
    Just hate what sky have become plus we ain't going to be on a lot either.
  • I'm just in the process of switching over to Plusnet, but while investigating where I was going to switch to I've heard a lot of good things about Zen, and also Andrews and Arnold. If money was no object I'd go with Andrews and Arnold as they seem to really know their stuff, but Zen seem to be a good halfway house in terms of cost and services between them and Plusnet, especially if traffic shaping is an issue for you.
  • edited June 2016
    Stig said:

    Thanks very much for all the advice everyone, much appreciated. It looks like either a Sky-repackage or Plusnet. I'm pleased to hear that Freesat seems to be well received and will bear in mind the thumbs up for Humax, if we buy one. I am most taken with the suggestion from @Blinkant about free channels from my existing box though - will definitely try this. Does anyone know what will happen to the stuff I've got saved on the hard drive when I stop subscriptions - will that get wiped, stay put or will it depend on what channels we've recorded?

    I could be talking crap here but I thought you still needed an operational sky card to get this? And to do new recotdings, maybe. There's a fee for that. See sky.com/shop/freesat/home/<
    /a>

    It is confusing and unhelpful that Sky decided to brand their product "Freesat from Sky" because I think there are differences between what channels are available.

  • Having also been an ex-employee, we were told that John-Lewis outsourced to Plunet due to how highly rated the customer support was. Could of been BS though.
    There was a definite correlation to Mac ownership to John Lewis accounts.

    Hang on, another Plusnet employee who supported Charlton? When did you work there?

    To back up the John Lewis, before Plusnet took over their customer base (which included Waitrose and Greenbee), their support was based at the BizWorks call centre in Durban, South Africa. They were very well thought of and indeed when I went over to help train them on Plusnet products etc they were great. Anyway, John Lewis customers were naturally worried that the high support would fall, which it didn't, and when the support got moved wholly to Sheffield (circa 2011) it continued to do well.
    But yes the reason we got the contract for John Lewis was due to the awards and customer service.
  • Now TV for the footy.
  • I tend to look at hukd and moneysavingexpert for broadband/TV/mobile advice. They usually tell you how to sweeten deals with cashback and other incentives too.
  • bellz2002 said:


    Having also been an ex-employee, we were told that John-Lewis outsourced to Plunet due to how highly rated the customer support was. Could of been BS though.
    There was a definite correlation to Mac ownership to John Lewis accounts.

    Hang on, another Plusnet employee who supported Charlton? When did you work there?

    To back up the John Lewis, before Plusnet took over their customer base (which included Waitrose and Greenbee), their support was based at the BizWorks call centre in Durban, South Africa. They were very well thought of and indeed when I went over to help train them on Plusnet products etc they were great. Anyway, John Lewis customers were naturally worried that the high support would fall, which it didn't, and when the support got moved wholly to Sheffield (circa 2011) it continued to do well.
    But yes the reason we got the contract for John Lewis was due to the awards and customer service.
    Up until quite recently, in tech support based in Leeds. One of the better employers I have had, so I might be biased, but I felt the desire to do right by their customer was genuine.

    It is a shame they are hamstrung but how crazy the telecommunications system is in this country. Something I believe has it roots in the decision to give BT ownership of the physical line, unlike Network Rail. Unless you are talk talk, Virgin or live in Hull on some level everyone is using and paying for BT.
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  • edited June 2016

    bellz2002 said:


    Having also been an ex-employee, we were told that John-Lewis outsourced to Plunet due to how highly rated the customer support was. Could of been BS though.
    There was a definite correlation to Mac ownership to John Lewis accounts.

    Hang on, another Plusnet employee who supported Charlton? When did you work there?

    To back up the John Lewis, before Plusnet took over their customer base (which included Waitrose and Greenbee), their support was based at the BizWorks call centre in Durban, South Africa. They were very well thought of and indeed when I went over to help train them on Plusnet products etc they were great. Anyway, John Lewis customers were naturally worried that the high support would fall, which it didn't, and when the support got moved wholly to Sheffield (circa 2011) it continued to do well.
    But yes the reason we got the contract for John Lewis was due to the awards and customer service.
    Up until quite recently, in tech support based in Leeds. One of the better employers I have had, so I might be biased, but I felt the desire to do right by their customer was genuine.

    It is a shame they are hamstrung but how crazy the telecommunications system is in this country. Something I believe has it roots in the decision to give BT ownership of the physical line, unlike Network Rail. Unless you are talk talk, Virgin or live in Hull on some level everyone is using and paying for BT.
    Ah fair enough, I left before the new office move in Sheffield and the opening of the Leeds office. Good to know there was another charlton fan working there though! But yes totally agree and as you could tell from the customer service training (which I helped to write ;-) ) it is the most important part of the business. As it should be.

    Anyway, will leave Stig's thread alone now. Glad to have helped.
  • cblock said:

    Just cancelled my sky contract, £71.00 a month with sky sports. Was offered £55 per month as opening offer, declined that.
    Bloke from sky calls up about a week later, willing to go even cheaper, declined that politely as well, told him I am getting
    a digi recording box, £250 one off fee.

    He did say he could understand that as no monthly outgoings, been with them for 20years plus, time will tell if it is the right decision.
    Just hate what sky have become plus we ain't going to be on a lot either.

    I'm coming off a 12 month introductory deal with Sky - tv only - will go up from £55 to £92. Crazy money.

    I can't deal with being suckered in to picking and choosing packages to remove.

    It seems to get the price to stay at £55 I have to phone up to cancel, be offered a better deal which I decline, then in the lead up to the expiry date expect a call reducing the price further.

    Putting the game-playing BS to one side, given the package price without discounts is £92, what would their likely ballpark best and final price offer be? I have no idea what constitutes rock bottom for them {...£40, £50, £60, £70, £80...} so don't know how far I can push it.
  • edited June 2016
    Moved to Kent last year and in London had been with Virgin for everything and costing over £120 a month. The writing was on the wall as far as Charlton was concerned so decided in new home initially to go with just broadband and buy a new TV (ours was getting on a bit) with built in Freeview and see how we got on without Sky (no Virgin in new area). Seven months later have no intention of getting Sky. Bought a Panasonic Viera with built in Freeview and wifi so have access to BBC i player, ITV/channel 4/Channel 5, youtube etc on TV. TV cost about £600. BT phone (most calls free) and BT Broadband together about £35 a month.
  • And for anyone who misses sport streaming I would recommend a read of the Kodi thread.

    I haven't gone there yet as am happy with my BT sport and broadband.

    I can't say how easy it is to get what you want but it doesn't sound all that hard. Can even pay a bit extra for a pre-loaded stick if your IT skills are very basic. I think you probably need to know which is your HDMI socket and maybe be able to follow some you tube instructions if you want to take it as far as you can.
  • edited June 2016
    Talal said:

    Have you phoned Sky and said you want to leave yet? Almost guaranteed they'll knock money off your bill. If you're unlucky with who you get to speak to just make an excuse and call back later.

    This is great advice and applies to Virgin too - they are both morally corrupt companies who try to fleece customers and value new customers more than existing ones. But if you threaten to leave they can give you favourable deals as it isn't in their interests for you to do so. I'd say just under 40% of virgin call centre staff are decent - about 20% are arrogant or dishonest liars. So basically if you get an awkward so and so - don't argue with them - make an excuse like you have to pick your wife up or something and ring another one later. You will be unlucky if you don't get a decent one within four calls. It used to be two calls - but the standards are dropping!
  • I thought I ought to come back and say thank you to everyone who gave good advice on this thread.

    I phoned up Sky and got a decent 12 month deal. I've cut my outgoings from £80pm to <£30pm. I've still got broadband, the landline I didn't want and all the basic tv channels. The box still works fine, though I did lose some of my recordings depending on what channel they were from. I'm pretty happy with this though.

    The only channels I've missed to date are Dave and Gold which are both full of old repeats anyway, so it's hardly that much of a miss.

    Thanks all!
  • Just got my sky tele down from £80 to £40 for ten months no contract includes sky go extra and hd
    original offer was £55 said no want to cancel rang me a week later and offered £40
  • Stig said:

    I thought I ought to come back and say thank you to everyone who gave good advice on this thread.

    I phoned up Sky and got a decent 12 month deal. I've cut my outgoings from £80pm to <£30pm. I've still got broadband, the landline I didn't want and all the basic tv channels. The box still works fine, though I did lose some of my recordings depending on what channel they were from. I'm pretty happy with this though.

    The only channels I've missed to date are Dave and Gold which are both full of old repeats anyway, so it's hardly that much of a miss.

    Thanks all!</p>

    No problem. I accept PayPal or cheque.
  • Vouchercloud sky TV full package £30
  • Blinkant said:

    Re freesat not a lot of people know this but your sky box will be able to pick up all the free sat channels when your sub ends. If you want to see what channels you'll get, just take your sky card out the box.

    Re broadband, I think only virgin have no line rental. As others have said, call sky and tell them you want to leave and they will do you a deal.

    I think that's Freeview, there are some differences. I use my Sky dish to get Freesat but I needed to get a Freesat decoder box.

    No problems with Freesat at all, just that you don't get Dave or London Live.

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